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Tory and Chow both worthy of your support: James

In public and private, both candidates evince the impulses you want in a mayor: service, desire for public good and a passion for civic virtues.

Olivia Chow may give off a soft aura but she's tough as nails and well researched about how the city functions, says Royson James. Nor does she fit the stereotype of her as a free spender.
(TIM ALAMENCIAK / TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO)

Been dining with John Tory and Olivia Chow, lately, and am reminded why I could vote for either one on Oct. 27. Toronto would be lucky to have either as its mayor.

Sure, anyone looks good, stacked against the incumbent. But Chow and Tory would shine among any list of candidates for the city’s chief magistrate.

The fact that both are seeking the job and could cancel each other’s support and let rascal slip back into office isn’t lost on anyone. This might even account for the sense of reserve that’s fallen over the race for mayor — five months in, five months out. Or, maybe it’s just the fact we’re halfway through a too-long campaign and in the middle of a provincial election.

But in a few weeks, when the spotlight returns for the final post-Labour Day push, you can be secure in your choice of one of these two.

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A journalist gets to see — in good times and bad, when they are on and when they are off, when they are in the zone to deliver a performance and when the lights are off and they are relaxed — these men and women who would be our civic leaders.

And over decades of observation, one gets to know the ones motivated and driven by the right impulses — service, desire for public good and a passion for civic virtues.

Jaded citizens, for understandable reasons, dismiss politicians as charlatans out to pick our pockets. As such, they sometimes fall for anyone promising to save them money and cut taxes.

Others see the public purse as bottomless — a means to a civic end that distributes wealth and delivers an egalitarian society.

It’s within these extremes that Toronto must find a resting place for the next administration led by a new mayor.

John Tory is a Conservative with a heart and a social conscience. You can’t be involved in the city of Toronto for any period of time without bumping into one of his initiatives, jobs, pastimes, volunteer efforts or civic ventures.

He is balanced. He feels Toronto in his bones. He thinks the city is a place for all kinds of folks and goes out of his way to meet them.

When a gunman shot up a funeral at my church, killing a youth, Tory didn’t have to show up. But there he was, offering words of support, without media, without fanfare — just as a human being. Out of place, out of space, out of culture, out of religion, out of norms, but every bit involved in the nitty gritty of his city.

Olivia Chow comes across as soft, maybe because she is so committed to soft social services and the future of children and youth and social groups. But she’s tough as nails and very accomplished and well researched and knowledgeable about every detail of how the city functions.

During her days on the city’s budget committee, she knew where every dollar was buried — often unearthing it and grabbing a few pennies for endangered services.

People think Tory is this conservative hack who will treat the city as a business and debase our culture and services. Absolutely not. Expect the opposite, really.

People think Chow will spend us into the poorhouse and has no money sense and sees the public purse as something to be plundered — for good causes. Sorry, she doesn’t fit the stereotype, folks.

Tory could do the mayor’s job in his sleep — leaving loads of time to bring his considerable energy to job creation and the other initiatives that have languished under the current regime.

Chow will absolutely surprise Torontonians with a dexterity and toughness carefully posited behind her obvious grace and poise.

In other words, check their positions and policy platform and vote with confidence for the candidate of your choice.

Except, of course, if summer turns to October and you must pick one and reject the other to avoid a disastrous Ford rerun.

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